#the Norwegian kind of midwife

[aurora-daily]

How Aurora awed Billie Eilish, met Leonard Cohen’s lover and sang her way out of the Norwegian woods

The secret star of Frozen II on why she chose music over molecular science – and the reason ‘art without politics is a bit boring’

AURORA for The Telegraph, interviewed by Neil McCormick (May 26th, 2024)

“I’ve always known how to sing,” says Aurora Aksnes, in her soft, clear Norwegian accent. “I never really get tired. I can sing for 12 hours. And have a pint of Guinness. And still sing!”

There is something very special about the 27-year-old singer, songwriter and producer known simply as Aurora. Her music is extraordinary, but in person she is enchanting too: warm, witty, intense and slightly unearthly. She dresses with colourfully eccentric flair, and her wide eyes lock on to yours as if she is trying to peer into your soul, or let you see into hers.

The youngest of three sisters, she was raised by her mother, a midwife, and father, a salesman, in remote western Norway as a “person of the forest”, as she puts it, playing piano, writing songs and dancing from an early age. Her intimate and original compositions soon found an audience online and, at 18, she was given a record deal by Decca. Her breakthrough 2015 single, Runaway, has had more than 870 million streams on Spotify (where she has more than 12 million monthly listeners) and in excess of 640 million views on YouTube. Among her early fans was a young Billie Eilish, who has since said “When I saw Aurora, something inside me clicked, like, that is what I want to do.” 

While Aurora tends not to trouble the weekly singles charts, her atmospheric music has appeared on the soundtracks to countless video games, TV series and films – and that’s her you can hear singing Into the Unknown, the most irresistible earworm in Frozen II, alongside Idina Menzel. Or you might know her from the 2015 John Lewis Christmas ad, for which she invested an interpretation of Oasis’s Half the World Away with her signature gentle intensity.

Yet her true talent is most evident in her own poetic songs that range from the intimate to the epic and provide a showcase for a clear, high, expressive voice that seems able to go anywhere she wants it to, in productions that blend folk, classical, techno and pop. Enya, Björk and Kate Bush are clear influences, but you could throw into that mix the world-funk blend of Peter Gabriel, the shiny electronic dance spirit of Robyn and the synth psychedelia of The Chemical Brothers. “It’s very hard when people ask what kind of music I do,” she says. “I just like to say I make good music. It’s something I bring from within, like a human organ. I’m an organ donor!”

Released next month, Aurora’s fourth album What Happened to the Heart? is her strongest yet – a vividly emotional set grappling with loss, grief and recovery that somehow shines with a spirit of positivity. “It is not a breakup album,” she insists. “Well, not in the traditional sense of breaking up with a lover. But it has a lot of the same sentiments: saying goodbye, accepting change. It’s about the healing process, and how we deal with pain.” Although she has previously claimed that she doesn’t write from autobiographical experience, she acknowledges that, on this occasion, personal upset (about which she doesn’t wish to go into detail) was involved.

“Usually, I don’t write when I’m sad,” she says. “I don’t want to write in a way that worships the pain; I feel I should heal first, and then I can put light and wisdom in there. But this time it was very urgent. I really felt the need to pour out a lot.”

Yet if the new album draws on individual sadness, it also taps into Aurora’s sense that “something is seriously wrong in the world. While I was writing and recording, wars were breaking out. I could not contain this anger and rage on behalf of the underdog. The music got quite wild and dark.” 

As her audience grows, Aurora considers it her responsibility to speak out about the issues that matter to her, whether the state of the environment or LGBTQ+ rights. “It’s not the 1940s any more, a modern star should be in touch with the world,” she says, adding, “Art without politics is a bit boring.”

When Aurora was young, she wanted to be a scientist, perhaps in the field of “molecular technology”, she says – “I still might; life is long!” – but then music took over. “I listened to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, because that’s all the music we had in my childhood home, in the forest countryside in Norway. So when I started writing, I thought that music should say something big.”

She notes that during the 1980s when Cohen’s career was failing in the rest of the world, he was sustained by his popularity in Norway. “He had something otherworldly, that felt like an ancient reminder of kindness and grace in a world that can be very ungraceful and unkind.” Aurora tells me with delight that she knew Marianne Ihlen – Cohen’s lover and the subject of his classic 1967 song, So Long Marianne – who died in 2016, aged 81. “She was from the same village as my grandparents. She was so beautiful.”

There is something discernibly Norwegian about Aurora’s own music, full of allusions to long, dark winter days and the return of the light brought by spring. “It’s funny how deeply the sadness is rooted in the darkness,” she says. “You hear it from way back in our history, in every children’s song; they are all super sad, with heavy melodies, a dead mother, a dead child, a troll in the mountains that’s lonely. When the darkness comes, we hibernate. I read and sleep and cook and light candles, I ask of myself nothing. When everything blossoms, I write a lot; from February to October is [when I’m at] my most creative. Even though the winter months are hard, it’s worth it, because spring is just bliss.”

She believes that music is the ideal medium not only to express that bliss, but to inspire it, too. “I think it reminds people that they have power and hope and potential,” she says. “There’s so much fear in the media, and it makes us very easy to control, because any animal or human in fear makes bad decisions. Music can speak about the same things, but it’s fuelled by love.”

When I point out that images of death and mortality haunt the new album, Aurora laughs – “Well, I am Norwegian!” – before insisting that, ultimately, she won’t allow the gloomy state of the planet to crush her positive spirit. “I’m not pessimistic, but I can sound like it,” she says. “It’s an odd world, that’s all I really want to say. I find it very strange, but also very beautiful.”

[princesssarisa]

In Cinderella Tales From Around the World, I've now reached the tales from Sweden and Norway.

*In many of these variants, just like in many versions from Great Britain and Ireland and some from Denmark, the Cinderella character is a princess by birth, and her stepmother is a queen. At first it seemed strange to me that a princess should be forced to clean, cook, and pasture animals, when royalty should have servants for those things. But then I remembered Disney's Snow White and how the wicked Queen forces Snow White to work as a scullery maid. In fairy tales, that sort of thing can happen.

*Whether there are two stepsisters or one can vary, though most often there's just one. But in all these versions, the heroine's abusers are a stepmother and stepsisters – neither Sweden nor Norway seems to have variants where she's abused by her biological family.

*In a few Swedish versions, the heroine is known as "Crow-Cloak," because her stepfamily forces her to wear a cloak of crow feathers. But in most others, as in other countries, she has a nickname related to cinders or ashes.

*The heroine's helpers in the Swedish versions come in a wide variety: a pike in a well, an ermine, an old man, a bird, a black ox, a midwife, a mountain troll, or even a magical apple, pear, and plum.

*The theme of the heroine being ordered to sort or prepare peas or grain, and her helper doing it for her, reappears in several versions.

*Almost all Swedish and Norwegian versions have the heroine go to church in her finery, not a ball or festival. Just one Swedish version, Askungen, has a ball instead, and that version seems heavily influenced by Perrault, because so far it's the only other version I've seen with a pumpkin transformed into a coach (along with rats into horses and caterpillars into footmen), and one of the very few where she has to leave by midnight.

*As in the Danish versions, the heroine usually says "Light before! Darkness behind!" to prevent anyone from following her from home to church or vice-versa.

*The theme of the stepsister(s) cutting her/their feet to make the shoe fit, but a bird revealing the trick, is once again constant.

*Several different Norwegian variants are called Kari Woodencloak, or in some English translations, Katie Woodencloak. As her name implies, this Cinderella figure does her dirty work wearing a dress made from boards of wood.

**The most famous of these versions, the one collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, is another variation on the "abused stepdaughter runs away with her magical bull" theme. Kari is a princess whose wicked queen stepmother tries to starve her, but the bull magically feeds her each day, until the stepmother finds out and plans to kill the bull, so they flee. The bull is forced to fight three trolls, which leaves him gravely wounded, and he implores Kari to kill him, then lay his skin under a stone. Sadly she obeys, and from then on whenever she knocks on that stone, her wishes are granted. The story then, of course, becomes a Donkeyskin/All-Kinds-of-Fur variant as she becomes a scullery maid at the castle of the prince, who treats her scornfully, only to fall in love with her when she comes to church dressed in magical finery.

***There are Swedish variants almost identical to this one too. Although they don't include the wooden dress, and in one of them, the bull is replaced by a white bear.

**There are other, simpler Kari Woodencloak tales too, though. One is like Cinderella meets Puss in Boots: Kari is a peasant girl who inherits only a pet cat when her parents die, so she and the cat set out to seek their fortune, she becomes a castle scullery maid, and the cat becomes her helper, hunting animals and selling them to the king, then using the money to buy finery for Kari. Others are standard Cinderella tales where Kari doesn't leave home, but simply slaves for her stepmother; in one of these, she gets her finery from a mysterious hill where disembodied voices speak, and another is like a simplified version of Asbjørnsen and Moe's, where the stepmother kills Kari's bull and Kari then gets her finery from his grave.

*There are many other Norwegian variants too. The heroine's various helpers in these versions include her mother's spirit, a bird, several birds, a mysterious old woman from inside a hill, or a fairy who appears from inside a lime tree and calls herself "the lime tree queen." (In virtually all the Scandinavian versions that include a magical tree, it's a lime tree, just like it's usually a hazel tree in Germany.)

*In some Norwegian versions, the stepmother is a sorceress who magically imprisons the father and forces him to marry her against his will at the beginning.

*At least two Norwegian versions continue after the heroine's marriage; her stepsister throws her into the sea and takes her place, but she comes back in the form of a duck, and her husband eventually breaks the spell.

Next stops: Finland, Estonia, and Russia.

@adarkrainbow, @ariel-seagull-wings, @themousefromfantasyland

[r0yalgrimmartz]

💎Cytherea Megami Headcanons💎

I've did headcanons for Kore, imma do one for Cytherea. Just love how my best ideas usually come from me sitting on the toilet for the next half hour. Also, MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING for mentions of child neglect/bullying/miscarriage/form of child abuse.

((Also as a disclaimer, I feel the need to say that while yes, Cytherea doesn't exactly have the greatest support system to some extend and with how she's grew up, I am in no way in any shape or form justifying her actions for how she treated everyone else. As someone who was horribly bullied when I was in my early teens, yeah it massively fucking sucked. I've gotten over it and have tried to deal with the aftermath of it in a healthy manner. I feel the need to say this as a victim of being bullied myself, because I'm not trying to justify her actions nor wanting people to sympathise with her. Yes, you can sympathise with her to some extent with how she's been raised, but Cytherea is purely meant to be someone who's supposed to be working towards redeeming herself and not having it handed to her. She needs to learn from her past behaviour and mistakes and feel regrets.))

Anyway:

- An only child, just her and her parents plus her own personal maid. She comes from a well known, famous and wealthy family line generation known as 'The Megami Group'.

- The absolute embodiment of Regina George. Like, it ain't even funny. Plus if you mix early season one Chazz and season two Zane it's even worse.

[CUT TO BREAK UP TEXT]

- Normally tends to care about popularity at the beginning of the season, but after meeting Kore, her only goal and drive is to beat Kore and anyone at a Duel, no matter what or how savagely. Kore had ignited some sort of "crazed" obsession for winning and beating anyone and crushing them. Specifically Kore.

- Her clothes, acrylic nails, make up, skin care and shoes probably cost more than your mortgage.

- Is Norwegian. Has been taught to learn English and other languages as well, from French, Spanish, German, Greek, Italian...Especially Japanese.

- Lives purely out of spite. She absolutely thrives off pissing off others.

- Despite earlier on having loads of "friends", she can't help but always feel alone. That there isn't anyone really there for her. To be honest she thinks she prefers being alone, yet subconsciously kind of seeks out wanting someone.

- Dates Ilya Hadesu in first season, kinda dies out in the end of season 1 and beginning of season 2.

- Due to the constant neglect from her parents, she has always tried proving to them that she is worth something. To gain their love and affection that she used to crave. Seeing other kids have loving parents kind of infuriated her to the point she lashed out or tried to physically hit said person.

- Cytherea was basically a product of...literally not exactly a wanted child by both of her parents. Her parents basically never planned to have kids, but once Cytherea's mother fell pregnant accidentally, her father had only hoped it would be a boy. Of course, Cytherea ended up being a girl, thus both parents really had zero interest in her.

- Cytherea has her own personal maid, which was hired originally as a midwife by Cytherea's mother to aid her throughout the pregnancy. Her midwife was also pregnant at the time, but unfortunately miscarried in the later stages of pregnancy. However, once Cytherea was born literally a week after, seeing how both Cytherea's parents had little to no interest, the midwife ended up wanting to stay and become a maid for them, personally for Cytherea and to take care of her. Thus forth, she had become more of a parental guardian and more so a paternal figure towards Cytherea. Cytherea seeks her out for parental guidance most of the time. Even going so far as to teach Cytherea little things, such as sewing and even getting Cytherea into knitting. Proper manners, table manners and elegance, plus playing the piano is what Cytherea learned from her maid.

- Just an add on from the last point, but whatever achievements Cytherea gets that are usually brushed off by her parents, her maid will always be there to support her and even praise her massively for her achievements. Even if Cytherea still seeks out her parents validation.

- Cytherea has....so many achievements. From ice skating, to horse riding, skiing, acrobatics, swimming...She is first place. Always first place. She will never settle for less no matter what. Mocks anyone that's in second place, calling them "first place in being the biggest loser".

- Definitely has bullied students at Duel Academy. Equally. Doesn't matter who it is or what they look like, at the end of the day, everyone will suffer her wrath.

- She is either loved by the school, massively hated, or is greatly feared amongst the lower dorms. Has created many...many enemies. Such as Alexis, Chazz, Aster, Bastion, Zane, Adrian...probably more but Syrus massively fears her. Hassleberry dislikes her attitude, even saying to her face one time. Cytherea threatened Hassleberry with something just so he could shut up. Hanae absolutely hates her guts. Massively.

- Kore is oblivious to Cytherea's threats and their rivalry after Kore stood up to her. Kore for some reason tries to befriend Cytherea (despite Chazz literally warning Kore several times to not to), even going so far as to get her a little silly gift for Cytherea for her birthday. Cytherea had screamed at Kore that she is worthless and will be nothing but a pathetic rival. Yet, Cytherea still had the gift Kore made for her to this day.

- Does not cross Miyu in the slightest. Her and Miyu are on...civil terms shall we put it. Something happened during season one where Miyu somehow managed to strike fear into Cytherea during a duel. Cytherea has not dared to even face Miyu since. But she will never admit it.

- Loves scented candles. Has several in her dorm room. Plus has a hobby in knitting and sewing (callback to previous points ago). She finds peace in it.

- Definitely tried to provoke Sartorius at one point. Literally insults and berates the entire white dorm in season two. Might have hired someone at one point to blow up the white dorm because...why not. How Cytherea has now be expelled or you know- CHARGED is beyond anyone's mind.

- Somehow became friends with Jaden in season two. Much to his friend's hatred. Starts to slightly mellow out with her behaviour at the end of season two and during season three.

- Has some...deep admiration for Axel. Probably at some point was stuck with him during their time in the other dimension. When Axel felt fear, Cytherea probably stood up and took over the reins and was probably like "move your ass we got a Supreme King to fucking kick the fuck out of". But yeah, throughout season three her admiration for Axel builds up. Could be a crush? Hell no she doesn't get crushes...she thinks. Either way, she keeps her mouth shut about it till like season four when she then is like "...okay you're cool I'll only admit".

- Throughout season four, Cytherea isn't exactly the extreme mean girl she was compared to season one. Sure she still acts mean at times and a bitch during season four, but Cytherea is more...self aware about the people around her. Granted, the gang don't let her off the hook, she has to earn their trust and respect. Especially when Kore isolates herself after what happened, Cytherea tries to help her. Even being firm, blunt, yet understanding towards Jaden as well. Considering the horrors that they all went through.

- Is disowned by her parents at some point during the series. I don't know how yet, but probably during season two where Sartorius probably pulls some shit, alerting her parents and gets to the point they disown her. Thus making Cytherea realise that this whole time she didn't need them, considering her maid only ever acted as her guardian and ever helped her. Thus, once she graduates from Duel Academy, she tries to take a portion of her family's company, building up whatever she has and actually becomes more successful than her parents with the family name. She eventually asks her maid to adopt her to be her legal daughter, and the maid ofc agrees.

- Does actually briefly date Kore for like a year and a half after they graduate but then break up once they decide to just keep it as friends since they realised they were better as friends. Did Chazz find out? Yes. Was he happy about it? Haha- He was fucking furious.

- She always wears diamonds. No matter what outfit. Diamonds are essential.

- Hates the smell of flowers. Thinks they look pretty but she thinks they have a pissy smell to them.

- Religiously follows a morning and night time skin care routine. Will never miss out any steps, nor miss out doing the entire routine. If she does, there will be hell to pay.

- A big morning person. Likes to wake up bright and early to get a head start of the day. Will always wake up at 6AM. The latest she'll lie in will be 7:30AM, no later.

- Enjoys a lot of teas. Very much a tea enjoyer, any variety of tea flavours.

- Always dressed up. Will never be caught dead in lounge wear or in lazy clothing. She is always dressed to impress and outshine everyone.

- Upon first glance she doesn't look athletic, but thanks to her years of ice skating and other activities she participated in, she is quite flexible and strong, mainly strong in the legs.

- Is quite a mean duelist. Sometimes plays dirty but tries to play fair. Shows no mercy and never holds back. She goes all out on destroying her opponents. Does not like showing weakness.

I think that's all, unless there's more I might edit later or mention in the later future.

[laresearchette]

Friday, December 01, 2023 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: FROG AND TOAD: CHRISTMAS EVE (Apple TV+) SHAPE ISLAND: THE WINTER BLUES (HGTV Canada) THE SNOOPY SHOW: HAPPINESS IS HOLIDAY TRADITIONS (Apple TV +) SPIRITED - SING ALONG VERSION (Apple TV+) IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE (Shudder) MY NORWEGIAN HOLIDAY (W Network) 8:00pm POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN (Starz Canada) 9:00pm THE UNBELIEVABLE WITH DAN AYKROYD (History Canada) 10:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT? SEXIEST SPLASH PADS (TBD - HGTV Canada)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA CANDY CANE LANE MY MAN IS CUPID

CBC GEM CALL THE MIDWIFE (Season 12 holiday specials) DAS BOOT (Season 4) THE NEXT STEP(Season 5) ODD SQUAD (Season 2B)

CRAVE TV THE ART OF WOO ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER BAD BOYS BAD BOYS II CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING (Season 3) CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR JOY RIDE KILL BILL VOL. 1 KILL BILL VOL. 2 THE KILLING KIND (Season 1) MUCH ADO ABOUT CHRISTMAS NEW YEAR’S EVE – STARZ NURSE FIGHTER BOY – STARZ THE O.C. (Seasons 1 - 4) A PARIS CHRISTMAS WALTZ POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN (Season 3, Episode 1) SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE STORIES WE TELL THE TAKE BACK (SPECIAL PREMIERE)

DISNEY + STAR EXPLORER: LAKE OF FIRE INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY THE MILL THE SHEPHERD SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE TIMELESS HEROES: INDIANA JONES & HARRISON FORD

NETFLIX CANADA BAD BOYS II CHRONICLE CONFESS, FETCH THE CRAFT HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS IT’S COMPLICATED JULIE & JULIA MAY DECEMBER OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY PRIDE & PREJUDICE SHREK SWEET HOME (Season 2) (KR) TRANSPLANT (Seasons 1-3)

2023 FIFA MEN'S U17 WORLD CUP (TSN3) 6:48am: Third Place Match - Argentina vs. Mali

G LEAGUE BASKETBALL (TSN4) 11:00am: Maine vs. Raptors 905

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:00pm: Sharks vs. Devils (TSN5) 7:00pm: Sens vs. Blue Jackets

NLL LACROSSE (TSN) 7:00pm: Rush vs. Thunderbirds (TSN/TSN5) 10:00pm: Panther City vs. Warriors

NBA BASKETBALL (SN1) 7:30pm: 76ers vs. Celtics (TSN3/TSN4) 7:30pm: Knicks vs. Raptors (TSN3) 10:00pm: Nuggets vs. Suns

AMPLIFY (APTN) 7:30pm: Cree spoken word artist Zoey Roy meets with legendary Métis artist and activist Maria Campbell, who inspires a piece about the power of celebration. Zoey shares stories about her childhood and how her struggles helped inspire a rich creative spirit.

MARKETPLACE (CBC) 8:00pm: A Montreal lawyer discusses taking on the fight against Ticketmaster over its handling of concert ticket sales; a Canadian reseller shares how he scores tickets and resells them for a profit; the company's former CEO speaks out.

7TH GEN (APTN) 8:00pm: Melissa Brown is an Anishinaabe-Jamaican woman from Winnipeg who grew up in the inner city. Learn about how this entrepreneur, chef and mother is creating the change she wants to see in her community.

MY CHRISTMAS HERO (CTV Life) 8:00pm: An army reserve doctor tracks down her family's military history with the help of a new romance.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF JERSEY (Slice) 8:00pm: Raising the Stakes

A PRINCE AND PAUPER CHRISTMAS (Super Channel Heart & Home) 8:00pm: When a down-on-his luck confidential informant in a criminal investigation suddenly goes missing, a desperate young federal agent recruits his doppelgänger to play the role.

PLANET WONDER (CBC) 8:30pm: From farm to fork, petri dish to plate, Johanna seeks sustainability in food.

FRIDAY NIGHT THUNDER (APTN) 8:30pm: Alex Hill has been out all season struggling with anxiety, but she decides to try one race before the season ends. With the help of her team and family, she overcomes her fears and gets in a night of racing at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Texas.

THE FIFTH ESTATE (CBC) 9:00pm

CHRISTMAS UNFILTERED (CTV2) 9:00pm: On Christmas Eve, Becky wishes that her family would truly hear her. All of her thoughts and frustrations begin to spill out as she inadvertently starts telling everyone what she really thinks.

JUSTICE LEAGUE X RWBY: SUPER HEROES & HUNTSMEN PART ONE (adult swim) 9:00pm: Members of the Justice League are transported to the world of Remnant and find themselves turned into teenagers. The Remnant heroes combine forces with the Justice League to uncover why their planet has been mysteriously altered.

CHRISTMAS IN PARADISE (Crave) 9:00pm: Three quirky sisters enjoy some fun in the sun when they reunite with their estranged father in the Caribbean during the holidays.

W5 (CTV) 10:00pm: Searching for Sam; Boom Boom Chuvalo

CRIME BEAT (Global) 10:00pm: The Deadly Night Shift

[vanessakirbyfans]

Vanessa Kirby has never given birth, but after shooting her first lead movie role in “Pieces of a Woman,” she kind of feels like she has.

“Whenever I see a pregnant woman now, or someone’s telling me that they’ve just given birth, I smile,” she said in a recent video chat. “I feel with them.”

The two full days she spent shooting a searing scene for the film could explain this psychic confusion, as could the thorough way Kirby, 32, immersed herself in the role.

In “Pieces of a Woman,” which debuts Jan. 7 on Netflix after a limited theatrical release in December, Kirby plays Martha, a pregnant woman whose home birth goes horribly wrong.

This pivotal event at the beginning of the film plays out in a 24-minute, single-take scene that starts with Martha’s first contractions and ends in tragedy. The camera follows Martha, her partner Sean (Shia LaBeouf) and a midwife, Eva (Molly Parker), around the couple’s apartment, condensing the agonies of labor into under half an hour.

In September, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Kirby won the best actress award, and began to be talked about as an Oscar contender.

Kirby said she wanted to portray Martha’s labor as authentically as possible. “That was terrifying, because I didn’t want to let women down,” she added.

So she got down to research. Watching many onscreen depictions of birth left Kirby no closer to understanding the experience, she said, since they were so censored and sanitized.

“Then I was even more scared, because I realized that I had a responsibility to show birth as it is, not as it’s even edited in documentaries,” Kirby said.

She talked to women who had given birth and women who’d had miscarriages, as well as midwives and obstetrician-gynecologists at a London hospital. While she was there, a woman arrived having contractions, and agreed to let Kirby observe the birth.

The experience of watching that six-hour labor “changed me so profoundly,” Kirby said. “Every second of what was happening to her, I just absorbed.”

And she began to understand how to play Martha. The woman in the hospital went into a primal, animal-like state, Kirby said. “Her body was taking over and doing it, so that helped me so much for the scene,” she added.

Over two days, that long take was shot six times. In a phone interview, the director, Kornel Mundruczo, who also works in theater and opera, said that preparing it was like getting a stunt scene ready: “Lots of planning, but you don’t know what’s actually going to happen.”

In the end, each take was different, Kirby said: Martha and Sean’s conversations shifted, the way Martha’s body reacted to the contractions was distinctive each time.

“It was, I think, probably the best career experience I’ve ever had,” Kirby said of those two days of shooting. Inspired by the labor she’d observed, she tried to think as little as possible, she said, and not judge what her body was doing in the scene.

After a decade of work, “Pieces of a Woman” is Kirby’s first time leading a feature film, and it is a bold and memorable role that shows her flexing her acting muscles. Mundruczo said he needed an actor at Kirby’s exact career point: “Where all of the skills are already there, but the fear is not,” he said. “When you are very established, you are more and more careful.”

Kirby has been honing those skills since she was a teenager. She grew up in a wealthy, West London suburb, where she attended a private, all-girls’ school and escaped the social pressures of teenage life onstage, in plays and youth drama clubs.

“Every time I walked into that space, I suddenly felt not judged at all, I just felt accepted,” Kirby said. “You didn’t have to be anything, or do anything right.”

After graduating from college, where she studied English literature, Kirby was accepted to the prestigious London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art in 2009. A few months before term began, though, she was offered three stage roles by David Thacker, a former director-in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, who was then the artistic director of the Octagon Theater in Bolton, a town in northern England.

Come to Bolton, he told her, and you will learn more from these roles — which included Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Ann Deever in “All My Sons” — than you will in three years of drama school. Kirby agreed, and now describes that season as her training.

“I learned everything there,” she said. Working with Thacker taught her to trust herself, to find her own way as an actor, rather than waiting for other people to tell her what to do, she said.

Kirby has been working steadily ever since, with lead roles in the West End, as well as high profile supporting roles in films and British TV costume dramas. She starred as Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of “The Crown,” a performance that earned her a BAFTA award. Her Margaret fizzes with restless energy, an ideal foil for Claire Foy’s restrained Queen Elizabeth.

In 2018’s “Mission Impossible — Fallout,” she played the White Widow, a glamorous black-market broker who carries a knife in her garter, and knows how to use it. She is slated to appear in two further “Mission Impossible” sequels.

Even as these supporting roles brought her critical praise and awards, Kirby wasn’t in a hurry to find her first onscreen lead role, she said. She’s played many complex characters onstage: women like Rosalind, the fiercely intelligent heroine of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” She was holding out for an onscreen lead in whom she could feel some of Rosalind’s “magic,” she said, which made performing “like flying when you step onstage.”

“I could never find those roles at all onscreen,” she said. So she waited, using her smaller parts as opportunities to observe and learn, asking Anthony Hopkins about his craft when they worked together on the British TV drama “The Dresser,” and watching how generous Rachel McAdams was onset for the film “About Time,” she said.

It’s fitting, given Kirby’s theatrical background, that “Pieces of a Woman” started life as a play, written by Kata Weber, Mundruczo’s partner, who drew on the couple’s own experience of losing a child. The play “Pieces of a Woman,” which is set in Poland, consists of only two scenes: the birth, and an explosive dinner with Martha’s family that occurs about halfway through the film adaptation. Its 2018 premiere, directed by Mundruczo at the TR Warszawa theater in Warsaw, was a hit, and the production is still in the company’s repertoire.

Around the time Mundruczo turned 40, five years ago, he started wanting a bigger audience for his work, he said, so he switched from working in German, Hungarian and Polish; “Pieces of a Woman” is his first English-language film. In adapting the play for the big screen, Mundruczo set it in Boston, he said, because he felt the city’s Irish Catholic culture mirrored Poland’s conservative social landscape.

The loss of a pregnancy is rarely featured in onscreen entertainment. Mundruczo said he hopes watching Martha’s experiences will encourage “people to be brave enough to have their own answer for any loss,” he said.

In recent months, the model Chrissy Teigen and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (writing in The New York Times), have shared stories of their experiences with pregnancy loss. Kirby said that, while researching for the role before filming, she found that women who had experienced one were “actually really relieved to talk about it,” and appreciated that someone wanted to understand.

“Pieces of a Woman” was shot over just 29 days last winter, but Kirby said it took months for her to shake off the experience of playing Martha. “I knew my job was to feel it, to feel what she felt,” she said. Carrying that degree of empathy was “really difficult and disturbing,” she said, but added that the privilege of spending time inside another’s experience is what she loves about her work.

Kirby’s next project will see her co-starring as Tallie, one of two farmers’ wives who fall in love in the United States in the 19th-century in “The World to Come,” a meditative drama from the Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold slated for theatrical release next month.

And after that? Kirby said she was reading scripts, on the hunt for the next role that will scare her. She’s looking for an “untold story about women,” she said, that will feel as urgent to tell as Martha and Tallie’s did.

“What’s that expression?” she said. “Feel the fear, and do it anyway.”

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Mother dragon (13); Winchester brothers x reader

*Author’s note*

Boy oh boy do I got some news for you all. Yesterday I took the time after having thanksgiving lunch/dinner, and I finished this chapter from start to finish. Which means now that this chapter is done, I can post up the remaining two chapters that I’ve had done for months now. So that means this story is finally complete and will come to an end today. I hope you all enjoy the final binge reading. Cause since I’ve managed to update so much throughout this break, I’m gonna hold off on updates till I finish everything school related.

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@plethora-of-things

@ixchel-9275

@waddles03

@platawnic

@deanscroissant

@onebigfangirlworld

@izzyisavengersupernaturaltrash

_______________________________________________________

By mid-morning, we finally arrived back at the den. Deacy phased back into his human form as I was clinging onto his back feeling my vision going in and out once again.

“Deacy—why?”

“Be thankful that Warren came back and got us when he did. Now why the hell would you sacrifice yourself like that? Percy could’ve killed you!” oh great now I’m getting the parental lecture from my own son.

I was then set down onto the floor and Deacy turned around and gripped my arms as he snapped at me again.

“Why would you foolishly use yourself as bait and be sent over to Percy!? Are you really that stupid mum!?”

“Hey I was trying to save your Beta. Would you rather have him be dead than—” suddenly I felt faint and began falling forward.  Then from anger to worry, Deacy’s whole demeanor changed as he began to cry out.

“Mum? Mum! What’s…..what’s wrong mum?”

“She’s been injected with acid venom.” I heard Cas’ voice say.  I felt Stephen’s hands come up and brush the hair away from my neck and he said.

“He’s right. That’s definitely acid venom. Kisara and I need to drain the venom out before there’s any further damage done to her.” I was then picked up bridal style and once again I felt myself flying up into the sky.

*3rd Person POV*

“I’ll get Kisara.” Apophis stated he took off flying to find his mate and tell her about their midwife mother dragon.  Deacy just stared up in absolute horror said.

“If anything happens to her I’ll—”

“Hey Deacon, relax. She’ll be okay. If she’s somehow managed to survive being injected for this long, she may pull through.” Sam assured him as he placed a comforting hand on the Alpha dragon’s shoulder.

“Yeah. She’s been attacked by a pack of Vetalas, vamps, werewolves, being possessed by a demon, dick angels and even the crazed human now and again.” Deacon turned towards him with a look that said ‘is this supposed to make me feel better?’ while Sam looked at his brother with a ‘really?’ look.

“What Dean’s trying to say is…..she’s a tough girl. She’ll be okay.”

“But this is impossible to begin with. I’ve seen dragons die with just a scratch of acid spitter venom. It’s almost equivalent to a black mamba’s. If she hadn’t died yet, I fear what has and will happen to her.”

Up in the healing wing, both Kisara and Stephen worked together in making a concoction as well as ‘anti-venom’ of sorts to try and counteract the venom she’s probably been exposed to.

“And you guys said she was still able to function?” asked Kisara as she prepped the potion.

“Yes. It’s—it’s almost a miracle on how she’s managed to survive. Based on the rash that’s already on her neck, it looks like she’s been injected more than once. I—I honestly don’t know if this’ll work.”

“It’s got to though, or at least we have to try. For our alpha’s sake.”

“Right, right, is the anti-venom ready yet?”

“Yeah, where do you want me to inject her?”

“It’s best if it’s at the source. So right here 4 inches above her main vein artery in her neck.” Stephen said as he placed the final piece, a lock of (y/n)’s hair into a hex bag to prepare the spell that would help the healing process go faster.  Kisara walked over to (y/n)’s unconscious body and kneeled down beside her.

“I’m sorry mother dragon.” She whispered.  She then injected the serum into her neck and the second the needle went away, Stephen took over and placed the hex bag near her and began to chant a healing incantation in old Norwegian tongue.

The rash around (y/n)’s neck began to glow a bright green.  Kisara kept a watchful eye on (y/n) as Stephen’s got faster and more intense as he repeated the same chant over and over again.  Then after Stephen ceased the chanting, (y/n) shot up gasping for air.

*My POV*

I woke up with a start and I saw Kisara and Stephen sitting over me.

“Easy (y/n), easy. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Kisara assured me.  I looked up at her and said.

“What happened?”

“You passed out from the acid spitter venom. Stephen and I tried to help cure you of the venom.”

“Did it work?”

“We’ll see. I mean—after all you are the only person to survive acid spitter venom. Anyone and anything that gets exposed to venom like that falls down dead within minutes. And to a human it should’ve killed you instantly.”

“Stephen don’t scare the poor woman.” Kisara hissed. She turned back towards me and said, “I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’m just happy they brought you back from Percy’s alive.” She hugged me and I hugged her back.

A knock was soon heard at the door and Stephen went up to thee door and opened it to reveal the guys as well as Apophis, Warren and Deacon.

“How is she?” asked Sam.

“Why don’t you come and see for yourself Winchester?” the three of them immediately came in and Sam was the first one to approach me.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I think so. I mean I don’t feel as tired as I have been the past 24 hours.” He sighed in relief and was the first one to hug me.  I rubbed his arm and that’s when Cas came up next and hugged me back.

“I thought we’d lost you.”

“Sorry to worry you Cas. But you of all people should know it’s hard to keep me dead.”

“Even I know that. A true Winchester even though you’re not one by blood.” Said Dean as he ruffled my hair and was the last one to embrace me.

“You sure you’re okay?” asked Apophis.  Dean separated from me and I turned towards the Egyptian dragon and said.

“Yeah. I mean like I said at least I don’t feel as shitty as I have been back with Percy.” I then turned to Deacon who looked like he had something on his mind. “Deacy? You okay sweetie?” he turned towards me and came up to me.  He knelt down and placed his forehead to my lap.

“I’m sorry mum. I’m so—so sorry.” I stroked my hand through his hair and said assuringly and motherly.

“It’s okay. I’m here Deacy. You know that it takes more than venom to take down your mother, huh?” he looked up at me, tears brimming in his eyes.

“I just—when I was told that you had been taken to Percy I just…..I was so afraid at what he’d do to you. Or that he—already had killed you had he found out who you really were.”

“Well he tried to find out, but I didn’t squeal about our relationship.”

“Yeah just told him about us.” piped in Dean.

“I was drugged so watch it Dean.” I warned him with a sharp look before turning back to Deacon.  “I promise Deacy, I’m not going anywhere.”

“You really mean that?”

“Yes. Consider it a mother’s promise.” He smiled softly.

“You’ve been so kind to me mum, better than any human has been to me in years.”

At that moment, a portal opened up at the side of the healing wing and the next thing I saw, Warren’s tail tossed Sam, Dean and Cas through the portal.

“But as long as Percy’s alive, he’s still a threat to you. It pains me to say this but (y/n) (l/n). As the Alpha dragon I forbid you from coming back to this sanctuary until Percy is either dead, or I am.”

“Whoa-whoa, wait no Deacon what are you doing?!” he picked me up and took me towards the portal.

“I can’t risk your life again. I’ve already lost one mum and I can’t afford to lose another one. Just know that I will always love you.” He then tossed me through the portal and I landed on the other side of it.

“No!” but before I could take another step, the portal disappeared.  “No. No. No, no, no, no! No! No! NOOO!!!” I screamed as I pounded on the ground.

“That sneaky son of a—”

“Dean.” Sam said stopping his brother from finishing that statement.  I felt Cas’ hands on my shoulders and I sobbed out.

“How could he?”

“He must’ve thought this was the best for you. Just like you’ve done for him.” I lowered my head and allowed a couple of tears to fall from my face.

*3rd Person POV*

Everyone but Kisara wore a face of shock.

“Deacon how—how could you?”

“Kisara.” Apophis stopped her.  With eyes filled with regret, Deacon immediately turned away and walked out of the healing wing.

“Why did you boys agree to this? What the hell were you three thinking?”

“She was captured by Percy Kisara. Deacon knew that even if he got a vow from Percy to not touch or harm her, he’d still do it. Even if she were the Alpha’s mother.” Warren stated.

“That makes her more of a target than even Deacon. He told us that once we got her back, it was best to send her home. Because not even someone like Percy would know where the Men of Letter’s American bunker could be at.” Apophis said.

“Because they have various abandoned bunkers and locations. It’s—it’s what’s best for them.” Stephen finished as he began to clean up his station.  With nothing but silence in the room, Warren was the first to leave, followed by Apophis and finally Kisara.

Stephen sighed heavily and turned to where he just had the portal opened a second ago before whispering.

“I’m sorry (y/n).”

*My POV*

After pulling myself together and the four of us walking ahead, it turned out that Deacon had ordered Stephen to take us back to the bunker.  We entered inside and all was quiet with Deacon now gone.

Of course I immediately left the guys and went to be by myself.  I showered and cleaned myself up as well as ease all the bruises that I probably had not just from the torture but also the dragon training I had been doing.  

As I stared at myself in my black robe with a towel over my head, I just stared at myself through the mirror.  I swished across my mirror to rid of the misty heat that got onto the mirror and couldn’t believe what my son had just done.

He actually played me like a fiddle and now he’s forbidden me from going to him until either Percy is dead or until he’s dead. I can’t believe he’d do that to me, how could he do that to me?

I removed my towel which allowed my hair to collapse and as I began to brush through it, something caught my eye.  I narrowed my eyes and hopped up onto my sink and turned my head to the left and noticed something at the back of my neck starting from behind my earlobe.

It was a small scar about 4-5 inches that looked like a small incision.

“Sam!” I cried out.

Now dressed I was sitting in the map room while Sam looked over the incision on the back of my neck.

“Yeah this—this is definitely too shallow to be a dragon cut. And you’re sure you don’t remember getting nicked when you fell down the hole with Warren?”

“I swear all that happened to me was just bruising on my back. There wasn’t any twigs or branches in the trap, it was all dirt and soil.”

“Okay. Well then, are you sure you want me to cut it open?”

“Call me paranoid or just seen too many spy movies, but I need to know exactly what Percy might’ve done to me while I was high off acid venom.” He took out his scalpel and handed me one of my belts.

I placed the belt in my mouth and took a deep inhale in before exhaling out.  I nodded to him and he nodded back before beginning to slowly cut down the incision. I let out a growl and breathed harshly and heavily as he trailed downwards.

“Hey Sammy, I’m running out to—what the hell is going on here!?”

“Dean what the hell?! You’re lucky I had to take the blade away from her otherwise I could’ve killed her.” Sam snapped.

“Sam what exactly are you doing?” Cas said as he came to us.

“(Y/n) found a stitched up incision on her neck. She believe Percy might’ve done something to her while she was drugged.” I looked at the other two as I breathed harshly trying to recover from the pain of having a blade cut through my skin.

“What do you think he did to you?” asked Dean.

“She thinks she might be bugged or something.”

“What you mean like chipped?”

“Yeah.” Dean and Cas looked to me and Dean said.

“(N/n), not to say I don’t believe you but don’t you think you’re being a little too paranoid.” I took the belt out of my mouth and said.

“No Dean. Based on what I’ve been told about him, never would he just let us go like that. It can’t be just because I’m the Alpha’s mother. He’s planning something, but I don’t know what. Cause the Parents of the alpha to dragons are revered more than the Alpha themselves, if Percy knew that I would be worth more than Deacy and the entire nest combined.”

“It struck me as suspicious too. A revered dragon trapper such as himself would never let go of his prey. Nor anyone who has tried to stop him. So why us?” Cas added in.

“Okay so, shall I continue?” asked Sam as he held up his scalpel again.  I nodded and put my belt back in my mouth.

“Hold on (y/n).” Cas came up to me and placed his fingers to my forehead and instead of passing out, I felt a little numb. He also took the belt out of my mouth and he said to Sam “Okay Sam, now do it.”

“Cas are you—”

“It’s alright Dean. I’ve just made her numb to the blade. She can’t feel it.” As Sam placed the blade back to my neck and continued the downward cut, turns out Cas was right.  I was completely numb to the pain of the blade, I could feel myself being cut but I wasn’t in pain.

Once he was done, he put it down then took out two pairs of tweezers and used one to open the flab of my skin while he used the other one to dig around.

It wasn’t long however when he pulled something out and to my worst nightmare, it was what I feared it was.

Percy had bugged me with a tracker.

As Cas healed up my mini-surgery and I picked up the tracker, my heart dropped.

“Is that—” started Dean.

“A tracker. He—oh god he knows.” I sat up in a panic. “he knows where the nest is. He knows exactly where we went and he knew Deacon would probably send us home. They’re defenseless. He’ll take them all, we’ve—we’ve gotta help him!” But before I could race off back to my room, Sam stopped me and said.

“Hang on (y/n). We—we don’t know what exactly we’ll be up against. We need to—rationalize before we run head first.”

“Rationalize? Sam by the time we do, Percy will have taken them all hostage. He’ll kill every single one of them. The dragonlings, the females, Kisara who is pregnant in case you have forgotten. And sell them off or worse mount their heads like trophies!”

“So—what you’re ultimately suggesting is that we just run in head first into a battle with probably hundreds of dragon hunters and trappers, those acid spitting sons of bitches and Captain Hook?” asked Dean.

The two of us stared each other down.  At this point I thought we were about to go toe to toe once again about helping my son who is a dragon and he having a beef with helping monsters.

But I was surprised at what Dean said next.

“I like those odds.”

“What now?” I asked confused.

“I mean hell we’ve been through worse situations than this. Plus no one bugs my sister but me.” I narrowed my eyes at him but I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he was willing to help.

“The dragons have done much for us, the least we can do is help them. Whether the Alpha wants it or not.” Said Cas.  Sam looked at us like we were crazy but one look from me and he said with a sigh.

“Well there’s nothing I can say to change your mind is there?” I shook my head no. “Alright we’ll do it. But just one thing; how are we gonna get back to England fast enough?”

“I have a few ideas.” I said with a smirk.

[aliesafenlock]

Au pair Magda is not Hungarian

As a Call the Midwife fan born and raised in Budapest, I was so excited when I heard about the addition of a Hungarian character to my favorite TV show: the Turners’ new au pair, Magda. Unfortunately, upon seeing her debut in s07e02, I was sorely disappointed with the unusual lack of cultural competence displayed by the show.  Magda is simply not Hungarian - read under the cut to find out why. Light spoilers for s07e02 to follow.

1. Let’s start with the character’s name. Magda is a common Hungarian name but Magdalena is definitely not. It’s used in Slavic languages, such as Polish and Czech, but the Hungarian equivalent is Magdolna. Could they not have done basic research so they at least got the name right?

2. Magda speaks with a heavy Russian or Polish accent, which many Westerners might mistake for Hungarian, except Hungarian sounds nothing like that and is not related to Slavic languages. (It’s not even Indo-European, like most European languages, but Finno-Ugric, related only to Finnish and Estonian.) No, we don’t all “talk like that” in Central and Eastern Europe.

3. The actress playing Magda is Polish-Norwegian Nina Yndis. It’s very common for Westerners to assume that the Eastern Bloc of Europe - the former Communist nations behind the Iron Curtain - was a culturally homogeneous mass of countries. The producers must have thought that casting an actress from one of these easily-confused nations to play a character from another would be Good Enough™ and no one would know the difference. Given that there are almost 100,000 Hungarian immigrants in Great Britain (many of them young women nannying British children), this is quite a miscalculation.

4. Series 7 takes place in 1963, only 7 years after the 1956 anti-Communist revolution in Hungary that was brutally crushed by the Soviet army.  Although many Hungarians escaped to the West as refugees in that week, the borders were locked down after that and it was very difficult to leave the country, with a few exceptions such as diplomats. Ordinary Hungarians, if they were lucky enough to have a passport at all, were restricted to traveling to other Communist nations. The idea that in 1963 a young Hungarian woman could casually hop around Western Europe as an au pair (Brussels, Amsterdam, Madrid, Paris, and now London) is preposterous and historically inaccurate.

5. Magda's wardrobe is far more fashionable and expensive than the apparel sold at the government-owned clothing shops in Hungary at the time. I showed screenshots to my mother who was a teenager in 1963 and became a clothes designer later. She said the only way a Hungarian girl would have these kinds of clothes at that time was if some rich relative sent them to her from America!

Bonus pop culture tidbit: When Timothy mentioned Radio Luxembourg, a real Hungarian would have definitely said something. In the 1950s and 60s, “Luxi” became a symbol of Western pop culture for Hungarians as the only way they could listen to Western music. The station was even was rumored to be jammed by the Communist government.

I know these might seem like insignificant whines about a minor character coming from a small, obscure country. But why make Magda Hungarian at all if they won’t bother researching what that culture entailed or, at the very least, casting a native Hungarian speaker to play her? Why make her come from any nation under Communist dictatorship and pretend she could travel freely? Considering the show’s usual commitment to historical accuracy, I’m really puzzled by this apparent carelessness.

[evyisaks]

The Isak + Even fan fics that I'm currently reading Part One: (This could be a recommendation list I guess, but it's more of a list of fics that I'm currently reading, so the ones that I've already read aren't there. The list is also in random order. I’m going to make a part two because damn, I read so many fics.)

→  Let Me In | milk_o_vich

“What are you doing here?” Isak asked, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. Even’s eyes were wide and a little unfocused, flitting over Isak nervously. He was quiet for a long time, rain hitting the pavement outside, and Isak became kind of aware that Even must be freezing in his thin, damp t-shirt. Even pressed his lips together, then said, voice hoarse and quiet, “Can I stay here tonight?” (Isak and Even broke up months ago) →  Expect the Unexpected | bri_ness

In which Snakesak plays Big Brother. 

→  right click > save as | kittpurrson

Isak, a fic writer in the Minute by Minute fandom, had the world's biggest crush on the fandom's biggest name. Or: the fandomception AU, in which two boys fall in love over Discourse, gifsets, and increasingly dirty hashtags. → The Weight Of Us | verlore_poplap

Isak finally takes the plunge towards what's seemed like an inevitability for almost ten years.Of course that's when some guy comes along and ruins everything

.---Isak Valtersen is literally the last thing Even's life needs right now.It pretty horrifying how hard that is to remember, everytime he's around.

→ I Would Do It Again | cuteandtwisted

"I dare you to hook up with him."

"What? The blonde guy?" "Yes, the blonde guy."

Or Even gets caught up in a dare, and Isak loses a little bit of himself in the process.

→ Home is wherever am with you | cuteandtwisted 

“Hi. I’m Even and I don’t usually walk around in nothing but a towel.” “Uh, I'm Isak.” “Isak. Mind if I kidnap you for some fun sightseeing activities?” Or Isak and Even keep meeting in hostels around the world and parting with a kiss or two. → blue like the night in cuba | piccadilly

Isak and Even meet on a train and spend a night exploring Paris, losing themselves and finding each other.Or, a Before Sunrise AU.

→ Livredderen | Kudzibisa 

I et parallelt univers møtes Isak og Even under dramatiske omstendigheter. Even er førstemann til ulykkesstedet når Isak havner i et voldsomt bilkrasj.Det blir et første møte som ingen av dem klarer å glemme.

Eller AU der Even (helt bokstavelig talt) redder Isak. Redder Isak han tilbake?

→ Summer Love | Chips2

Even has just finished University. He decides to spend summer at his parent's holiday house in the Norwegian countryside where he has been coming since childhood. He knows Isak, one of the locals, who has recently graduated from high school and is spending his break helping his dad out at his kayak shop.

Two boys from different backgrounds, both embarking on new chapters in their lives who find their worlds intertwined during their holidays and on one particularly hot summer break.

→  Little Harbour | MermaidsandMermen (SophiaSoames) 

The all grown up AU where Even is lost and Isak is Norway's favourite Midwife. It is what it is.Title from It's the dream by Norwegian poet Olav V HaugeIt's the dream we carry in secret, that something miraculous will happen. That It must happen, that time will open, that the heart will open, that doors will open, that the rockface will open, that spring will gush.

That the dream will open, that one morning we will glide into some little harbour we didn't know was there.

→ stay a minute | grinsekaetzchen

"The leads of Even Bech Næsheim’s new 'Romeo and Juliet' adaption were announced yesterday, with Eva Kviig Mohn taking to Twitter to confirm, ‘Looking forward to playing Julieeeeet’. Her fellow Romeo was announced shortly after to be Isak Valtersen, which his publicist confirmed today. It seems that this will be Norway’s new star-crossed pair of lovers."

In which there is a tumblr fandom that is dying every time new information for said version of 'Romeo and Juliet' drops, Even is a beloved director and Isak - well, Isak would just really appreciate it if his mind would stop surprising him with memories at the worst moments possible.

→ it's about growing up, getting older, living on a lover's shoulder (it's about time) | babyturtle

The Sana-and-Isak-Childhood-Friends ft. Bookclubs AU you didn't know you were looking for.

Sana and Isak might've spent more time fighting than reading the first day the met, but sometimes that's just how it goes. Usually. Usually that's how it goes. With Sana and Isak specifically. In their mostly dysfunctional two person book club.

Or, life is hard and growing up harder, but take my hand and I'm right there with you.

→ torches (life's too short) | xxLeviBech

"My mom used to tell me my thoughts would pour out of my ears if I kept thinking too hard." Isak threw back another fry, keeping his gaze down.

"That's pretty fucked up, man." Even deadpanned, making Isak snap his head up in a laugh

."Fuck you," He giggled, tossing one of the soggier ones at Even and being decidedly unimpressed when he caught it in his mouth.

Or, a canon divergence AU in which Isak's childhood is exponentially more severe -- where he can't remember coming to school without bruises, a bottle of hand-sanitizer, and long sleeves. It's fine, he's fine. It wasn't for his friends, though; and that's how he wound up here, in a fold-up chair every Tuesday and Friday, talking about his experiences with other post-secondary kids diagnosed with some kind of PTSD. It's also where meets a guy whose name starts with the same letters as everything, because that's... exactly what he is.

→ Come On, Set the Tone | boxesofflowers, Eeyoreneedsahug 

Isak is a recently out popstar who wants to prove that he is not just another pretty face in pop music and has the skills to make his own way in the musical world (just like his newly found idol, Even Bech Naesheim).

Even is a self contained, indie singer songwriter who takes shit from nobody - anyone in his cult following will tell you (including a certain popstar).Shortly after a public feud between the two begins, they’re forced together for a nationwide tour. 9 weeks, 50 shows, and countless hours (together) on the tour bus leave Even writing cryptic love songs and Isak wondering if he should leave everything he knows behind.

Ft. BL!SS, Balloon Squad, Wireless Problems, Jonas, and the Wobbles

→ Parallel Universe | RunningGirl

What if Even goes his own way, leaving Isak behind? What if he regrets it? What if he's given the chance to see what would have happened if he stayed?

Even made a decision after college. A decision he's regretted for five years. He's given the opportunity to see what would have happened if he hadn't made that decision. A glimpse into a parallel universe.

[envisiontv]

Renee Zellweger, Greg Kinear, Djimon Hounsou Interview for Same Kind of Different As Me

Renee Zellweger, Greg Kinear, Djimon Hounsou Interview for Same Kind of Different As Me

Renee Zellweger: Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, USA. Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (Andreassen), is a Norwegian-born former nurse and midwife, of Norwegian, Kven (Finnish), and Swedish descent. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born engineer. The two married in 1963. Renée has a brother named Drew Zellweger, a marketing executive born on February 15,…

[volcano-life]

The world lost the bright light of Yvonne Lerum Røskeland, age 42, on Friday, February 17, 2017 in Seattle, Washington. Yvonne’s life was cut short by brain cancer, but her time on earth was rich with travel, service to those in need, and a deep devotion to her family and friends.

Yvonne was born on May 22, 1974 in Cape Town, South Africa. The third of three children born to Gro and Arne Røskeland, Yvonne subsequently lived in South Africa, Namibia, Sudan, Portugal, Spain, and Norway before moving to the United States for college where she met her love and life partner, Karl Lerum. In 2003, Yvonne and Karl were married in a love-filled three day wedding celebration in the mountains of Norway, and in 2008, they welcomed their child Lukas into the world.

Yvonne achieved a Bachelor in Science in Biology from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and a Master’s Degree in Nursing from Columbia University in New York, New York. She was a certified nurse midwife and enjoyed a career in “catching babies,” as she liked to say. She was particularly committed to improving maternal and newborn health in impoverished communities, both in the U.S. and across the world. On one trip to Afghanistan, she witnessed extraordinarily unsafe and unsanitary conditions endured by pregnant women refugees. In response, Yvonne founded World Birth Aid, a non-profit organization dedicated to distributing birth kits to women who had no/little access to health care and where maternal and infant mortality is high. In recent years her passion towards the efforts of World Birth Aid have taken her to Haiti, Kenya, Somalia, Nepal, and Afghanistan.

Fueling her commitment to maternal and infant health was Yvonne’s generous heart which blessed everything and everyone she touched. An avid runner, Yvonne also literally had a powerful heart; no matter the weather, she laced up her running shoes and ran outside nearly every day of her life. She also loved to ski with her family in the mountains of Norway and the Pacific Northwest. She was multi-lingual – fluent in Norwegian, English, and Spanish – and she enjoyed traveling, baking bread, and making art. Most of all, she cherished her time with her family. Yvonne was a devoted and loving mother to her son Lukas; together they had a special Norwegian-speaking connection and every moment with him brought her enormous joy. An extremely kind and vibrant spirit, Yvonne is described by all who knew her as full of smiles and laughter, a gentle and generous soul, and a bright light.

Yvonne is survived by her loving husband, Karl Lerum and son, Lukas Røskeland Lerum (age 9) of Seattle. She is survived by her parents Gro and Arne Røskeland of Oslo Norway; her two sisters: Cecilie Røskeland, partner Ole Petter, nephews Mads and Mikkel, niece Carina, partner Morten and grandnephew Matheo; and Reneé Louie Røskeland, partner Rune and nephew Benjamin (all of Olso, Norway). She is also survived by her parents-in-law Lois and Jerrold Lerum of Gig Harbor, WA, and sister-in-law Kari Lerum, partner Shari Dworkin, and niece Ry Lucia of Seattle, WA.

For those who wish to make a charity donation in Yvonne’s name, donations may be sent to Karl Lerum, 506 W. Smith Street, Seattle WA 98119.

[aurora-daily]

A free bird

Interview: AURORA for Dagbladet Magazine (June 25th, 2019). Translated by fromthespaceamundo.

Anyone who loves Aurora Aksnes (23) will always come in second place.

THE FREEDOM OF FREEDOM: As a child, the record-breaking Aurora Aksnes (23) felt differently from other children. As an adult, she experiences the differentness as her greatest strength.

«It's art that keeps me up. And hunger. It's an eternal hunger.» says Aurora Aksnes.

From a red velvet sofa in a secluded corner of the Hotel Bristol, the pop artist has an overview of the buzzing room. Her third album A Different Kind of Human (Step 2) came on June 7, which got a 5 stars rating on Dagbladet and by Aftenposten was characterized as Aurora's most complete release so far. After the tour in South America, she is ready for festival summer and Norwegian tour. On June 28, she played at the Glastonbury Festival for her warriors & weirdos, the nickname she has given to her fans.

Since her artistic debut in 2014 and international breakthrough with a cover version of the Oasis song «Half the World Away», the 23-year-old has marked herself with self-written pop and distinctive talent for creating her own universe. She is acclaimed by artists like Katy Perry and has 570,000 followers on Instagram. The music press often portrays her as a kind of eccentric child, which is supported by the fact that Aurora appears barefoot in TV interviews, and privately has a fascination for moths and algae balls.

But she does not drink more than one beer, the concentration and strength of her blue gaze in combination with a low-pitched, clear voice, is more striking than her narrow sense of interest. Ever since she, as a 9-year-old, discovered the magic sounds that could be created with an old electronic keyboard she found on her parents' attic, Aurora has known the meaning of life:

«I could sacrifice all contact with others if I had to. I could sacrifice everything. I don't need anything else but to make music. Then I understand why I'm here.»

Aurora's lyrical universe is a lot about exclusion, but even though she writes about everything, from loneliness to suicide, outsiders are made into insiders in her songs, while the insiders appear as outsiders. On the title song, «A Different Kind of Human», she sings:

«We have come here for you, and we're coming in peace Mothership will take you higher, higher»

Is your own mothership hungry?

«In a way. Because hunger takes me where I am going to be.»

A different kind of human, what is that?

«Many people think that it is me because I have often felt different, but the lyrics have nothing to do with that. I ask people to make a choice and remind them that they can choose to be a different kind of human. If everybody had chosen it, the world would be a good place to live in.»

Have you chosen it yourself?

«Long ago.» Aurora responds calmly.

When did you choose it?

«When I realized I had a choice. I was a smart kid, so I noticed quickly that I am in place with people similar to me, but different. I had other dreams, interests and questions compared to the other kids. I remember thinking, ‘I don't belong here.’ At that time it felt negative, but I made a choice not to suppress it. I quickly removed the need to be understood and found the peace of mind that being alone is okay.»

At home, in the small town of Drange in the municipality of Os, the parents gave the youngest daughter room to be herself. Older sisters Miranda (32) and Viktoria Aksnes (29) were for some time afraid that the individualistic little sister, who used cut socks as arm warmers and make her own outfits, would be bullied. The problem was rather that the friends wanted more time with Aurora than she managed to give. After school, she was often out in the woods until her parents called her home for dinner with a bell.

«Mom and dad helped me be free. I was introverted as a kid, I was not so interested in people. I could sit alone for hours and thought it was great. I often chose to be alone rather than being with friends.»

When the family was to adopt a kitten from the Animal Protection Agency, Aurora had to choose. High up on a refrigerator, meowing alone, lay an old, a big and gray cat.

«I remember the first day of school. The kittens were like the other kids in the schoolyard with a lot of noise and nonsense. I recognized myself in Tulla.»

For the rest of her cat life, Tulla went to school bus stop daily to wait for Aurora and follow her through the forest towards home. It seemed that cats knew when she would show up, even though the schedule varied. Tulla never missed the moment.

«She didn't really like to be a tamed cat, but we had a strong connection.»

WAR OF WOMEN: Aurora Aksnes will give her fans, all the «warriors & weirdos», strength and acceptance to be themselves. Photo: Agnete Brun.

CURRENTLY:

•  Known under the artist name AURORA.  •  Newcomer of the year during the Spellemann Prize of 2015. Won the Spellemann Prize of 2016 in the best pop soloist category and also took the prize for best music video. •  Currently with the album «A Different Kind of Human (Step 2)». Sings on the Frozen 2 trailer. The film will premiere this fall.

One morning the Easter Bunny glowed from the couch in the living room, the next day it had found its way to the top of the roof. But when the rabbit joined Aurora Aksnes to the school and she entertained her classmates with colorful stories, a sudden sense of concern emerged in the classroom.

«The teachers thought I didn't understand the difference between reality and imagination,» recalls Aurora.

«They were worried about me. Then mom said, ’No, that's how she should be. And it's going to be her strength.’» The sense of alienation was lifted by her.

«It was very defining. It was the first time anyone was really up to me. I stood up for myself a lot, I never asked for help either. But at that time my mother stood up for me, and I have never forgotten that.»

To date, her mother's words work like a compass. Aurora stretches her flimsy arms out in front of her and slightly twists her wrists. Her glance glides at a beautiful, solid chandelier before returning.

«I knew there was a reason why I should cultivate a friendship with myself. I was going to need it. It is important that anyone who feels out of place gets a chance to see what understanding is for them in the world.»

She is most frightened to find that people do not understand what she means. She often meets a lack of understanding in depth. For Aurora, whose name means «the goddess of dawn», sunset and sunrise are not only a «a nice thing.» They are nature's short-lived works of art. Beautiful, but perishable, they give her both intense joy and sorrow.

«I think it is scary to perhaps never be fully understood. But maybe there is no real insider. Everyone experiences being an outsider, some just more than others. Acceptance is important in my world. And music... music is a healing instrument.»

CHILD PICTURE: A young Aurora Aksnes. Photo: Private.

NEWBORN: Dad Jan Øystein Aksnes with baby Aurora. Photo: Private.

REMEMBER THE TIME: Mom May Britt Aksnes works as a midwife and has encouraged her daughters to choose what feels right for themselves, rather than listening to others. Aurora herself feels like an alternative health worker: «Music is a healing instrument.» Photo: Private.

Ideally, she would have started rolling over the vacant floor space of the Bristol Library Bar, or asked someone to lift her up to be able to touch the crystals of the huge chandelier, but such impulses Aurora has learned to suppress. Guests are not allowed to put their feet on the tables.

«I have learned that the impulses can be unpleasant for people, but I have also learned when to give in to them. They can escalate if I feel insecure, but if it happens I consciously use them when there is something I do not want to talk about, or when I want to divert.»

FESTIVAL: A graduation-dressed mom May Britt, sisters Miranda, Aurora and Viktoria, as well as dad Jan Øystein Aksnes. Photo: Private.

This is how the 23-year-old makes twice as old music professionals listen. However, the leap from a natural western upbringing to the demands of an international artist was the toughest part. The NRK documentary Once Aurora (2018) reveals how Aurora has previously felt pressured to release music she does not care for and struggles to find the balance between closeness and distance to fans. She was discovered by chance when a friend posted a school video of a singing Aurora on Facebook.

«I never really wanted to become an artist. It just happened. There was a lot of pressure, a lot of sounds, a lot of work and a too much people for someone like me, who really likes the opposite. Then it helps if I have a meaning greater than myself, to see that I can help others. Making good music gives me a very special feeling. I get a sense of security in myself. I know why I'm here, what to fill the time with, and I have something to run after all the time. Something to look for that is inside me.»

Aurora puts a narrow hand on her chest and pauses a little before she continues with diligence:

«It is absolutely magical to have such a meaning in life. I never get completely unhappy when I have it. Suddenly I have people who listen, and I have a meaning in my lyrics, in who I am on stage, in that I suddenly want to write political stuff, not only emotional stuff.»

Aurora's message is: Help yourself before helping others. Stand on your own power. Be yourself.

«I learned this the hard way in a period when I was having a hard time. I struggled with panic anxiety when I was like 18-19 years old and saw how little functional I was, how little I was able to create, how little I could help others.»

The fact that she comes from a family where mental illness appears in several parts of the father's family, while artistic talent exists on both sides of the family, Aurora regards it as a strength. Her sister, Viktoria Aksnes, was diagnosed with bipolarity type 2 in the summer of 2016, and describes Aurora as one of the strongest people she knows and a great supporter.

«I learned early to be strong for others. And then I've learned a lot from my own journey in the world. I have traveled alone since I was 16. I have known grief and need, and the importance of being true to yourself,» says Aurora.

How did you get on your feet when you had panic anxiety?

«By giving myself time, not putting pressure on myself. Being kind to myself, I made sure I got what I needed to work on. You can't do anything for others until you are your perfect self. And this is not when you have many shadows.»

What were your shadows?

«They have been different things. But the biggest shadow was probably the shadow of my own success in 2016, which I didn't understand and didn't quite accept. I felt trapped in the reality that this is now a job. You're not your own secret anymore, you have to share yourself with the world, and that's the way it is.»

She stretches her arms, which are slightly clad in a cropped top under a mesh top that matches the tulle skirt over green harem pants. Aurora has mastered the art of looking simple and intricate at the same time. All her styling is done in collaboration with her older sisters: Miranda Aksnes — who she lives with in Bergen and who is often on tour with her — takes care of her makeup, while designer-educated Viktoria sews the stage attire.

«I'm stubborn and always making my own things. Magazines will often try to style me, but then I just say that I want what I like. I don't like people touching my face, only Miranda is allowed to. I do my hair myself, I do not like when people touch my hair either.»

What happens then?

«I can get really hot and then I get angry. I don't like being caught on that much. Hugging is hard. I need freedom and space. But I love people holding my hands, or taking my arm.»

Was that why you studied sign language as an elective?

Aurora, who dreamed of being a researcher in molecular biology, but dropped out from high school to spend full time on making music after the second grade, bursts into a vibrant laugh.

«Yes. I also liked the sign language because I stuttered a little. When I'm excited and girded, I still stutter, but the worst was when I had German, which is a choppy language.»

The stuttering started when Joop, a Dutch family friend and Aurora's confidant, died on Christmas Eve. During the Christmas service, the Aksnes family found out that he had died, and the funeral was held in the Christmas room. 11-year-old Aurora felt both her own sadness and the sadness of everyone around. It became so overwhelming and intense that she threw up afterwards.

«It was when I learned that funerals are not for me. It was absolutely awful Singing is easier than sitting on the benches and feeling your own and everyone else's pain. No, I do not like funerals, I get nothing out of them. Especially if the dead are young.»

They are many. When Aurora went to junior high school, her sister Viktoria lost a close friend. He was a 18 years old and died in bed by an undetected heart defect. At high school, Aurora's friend from the sign language class died in a traffic accident.

«I sang at my friend's funeral. She was kind, it was heavy.»

There was someone who committed suicide too?

«Yes, a friend of ours from Os. He was good, very good. And then I had one tho whom I was very close who died in Utøya. A boy I was in love with. He was lovely.»

Was he your boyfriend?

«We probably were, even though I was very young back then. I was 15 when he passed away. He was 17.»

The buzz in the room is increasing, but in Aurora's corner it is quiet. Suddenly she says:

«Eight days after someone I had been fond of passed away, I felt a presence. On every eight day it is if they were still here, and then no more. That's why track eight is always the title track on my albums. There is something magical about the number eight.»

You said you'd like to release eight albums?

«Yes. Even numbers are special to me: Eight is sad, eleven gives me more hope. My first album came out on the 11th. I can only have eleven songs on the album. And then track number eight is the most important one, always. I can't explain why, it's just like that and must be that way. You can find out a lot about me if you know that I love even numbers.»

She is also a warrior of love. Songs like «Queendom» have caused the LGBT community to embrace her music. The love society, Aurora calls it, who is open about her relationship with both men and women. The freedom to not define sexuality she feels is greater in her generation than among the elderly.

«I am very proud of that, because we put a label on everything. I think it is so lovely that we let love be love. Sometimes you need labels because you belong to a place, but I don't need it myself. I just feel that I am one of the many endorsers of love.»

Have you always known that you could fall for women?

«No, but I noticed that I could be captivated by them. Falling for a woman is different than falling in love with a man. A kind of mutual admiration. Something more intellectual.»

A sort of recognition?

«Yes, some kind of strength and admiration. I want to learn something from the women I fall for. With men it is perhaps a little more sexual. It is interesting to note that there is a difference.»

AURORA AKSNES

•  Born: June 15, 1996. •  Family: Mother, father and two sisters. I don't want to say I'm single, but I don't have a boyfriend. I'm in love. •  Best feature: Independence. •  Worst feature: I can be stubborn. But the best and the worst is that I am very emotional. •  Reads: Only fantasy. •  Listens to: Enya and heavy metal. I often fall asleep to heavy metal. It's heavy and delicious to listen to. •  Watching: Ghibli films, from Japan. Spirited Away. If I need to cry, I watch The Grave of the Fireflies. It's sad. •  Being provoked by: Injustice. •  Admires: People's ability to cope with the invisible obstacles. •  Afraid of: Dying before I have made eight albums. I'm very afraid of that, because I have to do that. •  Dream destination: Moon. •  To do in ten years: Maybe album number eight.

«I sang at my friend's funeral. It was heavy.»

- Aurora Aksnes (23), artist.

How are those you fall for? Do they also have algae in the fridge?

Aurora laughs at the hint of the algae ball Igor Septimus, who recently passed away in a glass of water because she had forgotten to place him in the cool and the apartment became too hot and dry for five weeks of absence.

«No, but there are often people who are free too. I like strong, stubborn ladies. I love the world to have such ladies, and I treat myself to have such a lady in my life. It is an extra spiritual thing with women that creates curiosity.

That you are hungry and can do without anything other than art? How are you at loving others?

«I think I'm hard to love. It must be difficult learning to be loved a little less than to be hungry. You always come in second place.»

Are you honest about this with those you have been with?

«I have been.»

How have they taken it?

«I haven't had so many lovers in my life so far. I love a lot and can fall fast. But then it fades over quickly because nothing can match what I feel when I make music.»

Aurora is looking for the words that can describe the indescribable.

«It is the closest thing I have to anything divine, I think. I can only find a lover who understands it. One who has passion. One who also knows what it means to create something. One with the same hunger. That can be the weird art of appreciating oneself. And they must know that music is under number one. Everything else comes afterwards. Even if I had children.»

Then the children would be...

«...number two. I know that. I have a lot of love in me, and I think I could be a good mother. I want a child who can inherit the house at Drange, which my father has built, and we, the daughters, will surely take over. That's what I'm thinking of. I don't know if that is good enough reason», she comments.

«But I had probably struggled with the conscience because I haven't managed to take a break from the studio during the whole day. It's a nice feeling that I want to give my mom and dad a grandchild, but for the time being I have no room for anything but music.»

To keep control, Aurora has learned to play various instruments and started producing her own music. The toughest thing she has had to realize is that she can not totally reproduce her own visions.

«I hear sounds that do not exist yet. So it is not entirely possible to reproduce what I have inside me, and I have accepted that. But I'm going to work a whole life to make it happen.»

FUTURE DREAM: «I dream of buying and living on my own island in Hordaland. There I will have cats, chickens and wild sheep and make music.» says Aurora. Photo: Agnete Bun.

«Falling for a woman is different than falling in love with a man.» «I'm hard to love. You always come in second place»

- Aurora Aksnes

Translator's Note: special credits for agenahadar from the Warriors and Weirdos forum for sharing the original article in Norwegian language.